A private company backed by a controversial U.S. businessman has unilaterally conducted the world's most significant geoengineering project to date. Russ George, in conjunction with a First Nations village on Haida Gwaii, has dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean in a technique known as ocean fertilization. The experiment, which is in violation of two United Nations moratoria, has outraged environmental, legal, and civic groups.

The iron sulphate was dumped into the Pacific back in July, but recent satellite images are now confirming its effects  an artificial plankton bloom that's 10,000 square kilometers (6,214 square miles) in size. The intention of the project is for the plankton to absorb carbon dioxide and then sink to the bottom of the ocean. George is hoping to cash in on lucrative carbon credits.

To make the project happen, George convinced the local council of an indigenous village to establish the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation. He told them that the project would restore salmon populations, leading the First Nations people to channel more than $1m of its own money into the project.

Critics say it is a "blatant violation" of United Nations rules, and the matter is currently under investigation by Environment Canada. Experts contend that the project violates the UN's convention on biological diversity (CBD) and London convention on the dumping of wastes at sea, which both prohibit for-profit ocean fertilisation activities. According to the Guardian, the news publication that broke the story, George claims that the two moratoria are a "mythology" and do not apply to his project. The Guardian reports:

George is the former chief executive of Planktos Inc, whose previous failed efforts to conduct large-scale commercial dumps near the Galapagos and Canary Islands led to his vessels being barred from ports by the Spanish and Ecuadorean governments. The US Environmental Protection Agency warned him that flying a US flag for his Galapagos project would violate US laws, and his activities are credited in part to the passing of international moratoria at the United Nations limiting ocean fertilisation experiments

Scientists are debating whether iron fertilisation can lock carbon into the deep ocean over the long term, and have raised concerns that it can irreparably harm ocean ecosystems, produce toxic tides and lifeless waters, and worsen ocean acidification and global warming.

"It is difficult if not impossible to detect and describe important effects that we know might occur months or years later," said John Cullen , an oceanographer at Dalhousie University. "Some possible effects, such as deep-water oxygen depletion and alteration of distant food webs, should rule out ocean manipulation. History is full of examples of ecological manipulations that backfired."

George says his team of unidentified scientists has been monitoring the results of the biggest ever geoengineering experiment with equipment loaned from US agencies like NASA and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. He told the Guardian that it is the "most substantial ocean restoration project in history," and has collected a "greater density and depth of scientific data than ever before".

"We've gathered data targeting all the possible fears that have been raised [about ocean fertilisation]," George said. "And the news is good news, all around, for the planet."

UN officials will be meeting in Hyderabad, India, later this week to discuss the issue, including possible upgrades to enforcement policies.

And as Silvia Ribeiro of the watchdog ETC Group has noted, "If rogue geoengineer Russ George really has misled this indigenous community, and dumped iron into their waters, we hope to see swift legal response to his behavior and strong action taken to the heights of the Canadian and US governments." Read more.

Top image via NASA. Inset image: Yellow and brown colours show relatively high concentrations of chlorophyll in August 2012, after iron sulphate was dumped into the Pacific Ocean as part of the geoengineering scheme. Photograph: Giovanni/Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center/NASA.

Post mortem: during the 2010’s, man began numerous large legislative and engineering efforts to alter the ecology of planet earth. These efforts were thought by some to address assumptions that something was wrong with said ecosystem.

By 2017, the resulting changes to the ecosystem and the global economy had started having real impact, causing massive upheaval to human life, economically and environmentally. One impact was the great famine of 2017, which lasted until 2024. By 2020 most survivors had sold everything they owned, to the emerging god like powers, who had become rulers over the earth, during the upheavals.

To start with, these waters are almost sterile because of the lack of iron needed as a nutrient, so a little bit goes a long way.

However, the bit about carbon sequestration is utter hooey.

But something *is* being accomplished that will likely cause chaos, not with the environment, but with environmentalists.

That is, when you create a profusion of “low level life”, like plankton, the end results is progressive bulges of life up the food chain. In this case, first of the small creatures that eat plankton, then of the small creatures that eat the small creatures. Then larger creatures on up the totem pole.

The end result will likely be something of a population explosion among fish. And that throws the eco-nuts off schedule, because they want to end fishing.

Experts contend that the project violates the UN's convention on biological diversity (CBD) and London convention on the dumping of wastes at sea, which both prohibit for-profit ocean fertilisation activities.

That for-profit thing is what's really pi$$ing the econazis off. Gaia forbid someone comes up with a solution to a problem and makes a buck to boot.

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